Prayer breakfast to kick off next Friday

The 34th annual Legislative Prayer Breakfast, to honor and share a prayerful occasion with Otero County state legislators, will be Friday, Jan. 4.

The event, which kicks off at 7 a.m., will be held at the Alamogordo Senior Center, on Indian Wells Road and Puerto Rico Avenue. The first day of the New Mexico state Legislature's regular session will be Jan. 15. The 2013 Legislative session is 60 days.

The breakfast is open to the public by reservation only. The event cost is $10 per person, but reservations must be made by 7 p.m. Thursday.

Republican Women of Otero County chairman Grace Gonzalez said it's a chance to share a prayerful time with our community and state legislators, particularly to pray for our legislators' safe travel to Santa Fe for their session and issues for the year to go well from them.

"The breakfast is a non-partisan event," Gonzalez said. "It's for all party affiliations to come together in prayer for our legislators. Everyone is welcome to attend. They all need our prayers. Our master of ceremony will be former 12th Judicial Judge Robert Doughty. We're going to have special guest, Secretary of State Dianna Duran, and her Deputy Secretary of State, Mary Quintana. Our guest speaker will be Church of Christ Rev. Al Maxey."

Otero County is represented by six individuals in the state Legislature: three senators and four members of the New Mexico House of Representatives. Otero County lost two seats in the state House of Representatives because of redistricting.

The senators are Republicans Ron Griggs, District 34; Bill Burt, District 40 and Cliff R.

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Pirtle, District 32.

The representatives are Republicans Yvette Herrell, District 51; William Gray, District 54; Zachary Cook, District 56 and Democrat Nate Cote, District 53.

"We had 198 people in attendance last year," Gonzalez said."The prayer breakfast is just a nice event. I haven't missed one since 1990. Every time I get out of the prayer breakfast, I have a sense of peace because it's a nice event and the speakers are wonderful. I am sure that this year we're going to get a sense of hope. Maybe our country and our state can turn around a little bit with hope and prayer."

She said the breakfast is a chance for citizens to visit with their representatives, pray for our country and state.

"It's going to be hard for our legislators to make the right decision," Gonzalez said.

"Right now, all we can do is pray. They're going to be there a long time making decisions because of the 60-day session. Really the prayer breakfast is for them to make the wise decision and to make the decisions that they need to make for our state and to pray for our country."

She said the legislators will host a meet-and-greet at the Otero County administration building, 1101 New York Ave., after the prayer breakfast.

"People can come to the administration building then meet with all the legislators," Gonzalez said. "They answer questions from their constituents."

The Legislative Breakfast was started by former chairman of Eagle Forum of New Mexico, Maude Rathgeber and Eagle Forum in January 1980 and honored four legislators who represented Otero County at the time.

Rathgeber handed the Legislative Prayer Breakfast reins over to the Republican Women of Otero County last year. She served as chairman of Eagle Forum in Alamogordo since 1977. Rathgeber stepped down as chairman in July 2011 because of health and personal reasons.

She lost her husband, Jack, a World War II Navy fighter pilot and retired Ryan Aeronautical Co. executive, in January 2011.

For reservations to the Legislative Prayer Breakfast, contact Grace Gonzalez at 430-4141.Reach Duane Barbati at dbarbati@alamogordonews.com